Various types of air filter assemblies have heretofore been utilized; however, because of certain inherent design characteristics they have been beset with one or more of the following shortcomings: (a) the assembly included numerous components and thus was difficult, costly, and awkward to assemble; (b) the assembly was inherently weak and required special handling; (c) the assemblies could not be effectively compressed together so as to form a compact bundle for shipment or storage; and (d) special equipment and/or an inordinate amount of manual labor was required to form the assembly.